Rock thrush

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Rock thrushes
Male short-toed rock thrush (Monticola brevipes)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Muscicapidae
Genus: Monticola
F. Boie, 1822
Type species
Turdus saxatilis
Linnaeus, 1766
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • Pseudocossyphus F Boie, 1826

The rock thrushes, Monticola, are a genus of chats, medium-sized mostly insectivorous or omnivorous songbirds. All are Old World birds, and most are associated with mountainous regions.

Taxonomy

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The genus Monticola was erected by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie in 1822. Boie listed two species, saxatilis and cyanus but did not designate the type species.[1] In 1826 Boie introduced a different genus name, Petrocossyphus, containing a single species, Turdus saxatilis Linnaeus.[2] This new genus name was not accepted by other ornithologists as according to Hugh Edwin Strickland: "The former name ought therefore to stand, as authors ought no more to alter their own generic names when once published than those of others".[3] The type species of the genus Monticola is Turdus saxatilis Linnaeus, the common rock thrush.[4][5] Monticola is the Latin word for mountain-dweller or mountaineer.[6]

The genus was formerly included in the thrush family Turdidae,[7] but molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2004 and 2010 showed that the species are more closely related to members of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.[8][9]

The genus contains the following species:[10]

Image Common Name Scientific Name Distribution
Blue-capped rock thrush Monticola cinclorhyncha Himalayas; winters to western and eastern Ghats
White-throated rock thrush Monticola gularis Manchuria
Chestnut-bellied rock thrush Monticola rufiventris Himalayas, Patkai and southern China
Short-toed rock thrush Monticola brevipes arid areas of southwestern Angola and southern Africa
Sentinel rock thrush Monticola explorator southern Africa
Amber Mountain rock thrush Monticola erythronotus Amber Mountain, Madagascar
Forest rock thrush Monticola sharpei Madagascar
Benson's rock thrush Monticola sharpei bensoni southern-central Madagascar
Littoral rock thrush Monticola imerina southern coastal Madagascar
Little rock thrush Monticola rufocinereus eastern Afromontane
Common rock thrush Monticola saxatilis temperate rocky regions of Palearctic; winters to Africa
Blue rock thrush Monticola solitarius temperate and elevated areas of Palearctic;
winters to Africa, Arabia and Indomalaya
Cape rock thrush Monticola rupestris southern Africa
Miombo rock thrush Monticola angolensis Miombo woodlands
White-winged cliff chat Monticola semirufus Ethiopian Highlands

Fossil record

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Monticola pongraczi (Pliocene of Beremend, Hungary) [11]

References

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  1. ^ Boie, F. (1822). "Ueber Classification, insonderheit der europäischen Vogel". Isis von Oken (in German). 10–11. Col. 552.
  2. ^ Boie, Friedrich (1826). "Generalübersicht der ornithologischen Ordnungen, Familien und Gattungen". Isis von Oken (in German). 19. Cols 969–981 [972].
  3. ^ Strickland, Hugh Edwin (1841). "Commentary on Mr. G.R. Gray's Genera of Birds. 1840 (continued)". Annals and Magazine of Natural History; Zoology, Botany, and Geology. 7: 26-41 [26].
  4. ^ Gray, George Robert (1847). The Genera of Birds : comprising their generic characters, a notice of the habits of each genus, and an extensive list of species referred to their several genera. Vol. 1. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. p. 220. The title page has 1849. For the publication date see Bruce, Murray D. (2023). "The Genera of Birds (1844–1849) by George Robert Gray: A review of its part publication, dates, new nominal taxa, suppressed content and other details". Sherbornia. 8 (1): 1–93 [18].
  5. ^ Mayr, Ernst; Paynter, Raymond A. Jr. (1964). Check-list of Birds of the World. Volume 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 135.
  6. ^ Jobling, James A. "Monticola". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  7. ^ Collar, N.J. (2005). "Family Turdidae (Thrushes)". In del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Christie, D.A. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol. 10: Cuckoo-shrikes to Thrushes. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions. pp. 514-807 [515]. ISBN 978-84-87334-72-6.
  8. ^ Voelker, G.; Spellman, G.M. (2004). "Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA evidence of polyphyly in the avian superfamily Muscicapoidea". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 30 (2): 386–394. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00191-X. PMID 14715230.
  9. ^ Sangster, G.; Alström, P.; Forsmark, E.; Olsson, U. (2010). "Multi-locus phylogenetic analysis of Old World chats and flycatchers reveals extensive paraphyly at family, subfamily and genus level (Aves: Muscicapidae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 57 (1): 380–392. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.07.008. PMID 20656044.
  10. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Chats, Old World flycatchers". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  11. ^ Kessler, E. 2013. Neogene songbirds (Aves, Passeriformes) from Hungary. – Hantkeniana, Budapest, 2013, 8: 37-149.

Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monticola.


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